


Eda

by Angryangryowl



Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Descriptions of Injury, Fluff and Angst, Happy Ending, Hurt/Comfort, Hux's childhood, M/M, Post-Battle of Starkiller Base, beginnings of Kylux
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-08
Updated: 2016-07-08
Packaged: 2018-07-22 07:54:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,212
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7426504
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Angryangryowl/pseuds/Angryangryowl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hux rescues Kylo from the snow as Starkiller Base implodes around them. In the shuttle he treats his injuries, and tells Kylo a couple of things about his childhood.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Eda

**Author's Note:**

  * For [GhostOfDorothyStreet](https://archiveofourown.org/users/GhostOfDorothyStreet/gifts).



> This was all his idea <3

‘I can’t..’ Kylo says softly, trying to turn his face from Hux

Peeling his gloves from his hands, Hux grasps Kylo’s chin between thumb and index finger, turning him back towards the bright light over his cot. The shuttle is no place for complicated medical procedures, it’s cramped away from the cockpit with limited medical supplies, but it will be enough to get Kylo back to the Finalizer before he dies of blood loss.

‘What is it you can’t do?’ Hux enquires, peeling sticky gauze from the deep, scorched wound that runs from the hollow of his shoulder, up his neck, and splits his cheek with a raw, pus-filled welt.

‘I can’t go back. Really it would have been more efficient to leave me in the snow. It would have been quick, between hypothermia, blood loss and the oscillator failing. I deserved to suffer more than that. I deserved-’

‘Hush, Ren. Rest..’ Why were all these force-users so intent on suffering?  
Hux offers no further commentary for now, pulling a pair of glasses from a pocket on the front of his uniform, and narrowing his eyes for the delicate procedure.

He’s stemmed the blood loss from the deep and messy blaster bolt wound to his abdomen, it will need surgery far more advanced than he’s capable of. He peels back the gauze to reveal a crater of gelatinous dark blood and pus, pulsating slightly with each heartbeat and slight movement. Hux has seen his share of battlefield injuries but even he winces. The skin around it is mottled, raw and angry red, with blotches of blue and purple bruising, some of the skin closer to the wound is still hot and painfully scorched. Hux holds his breath against the smell. If he has to prioritise, this one needs treatment first.

The med droid protests in bleeps and whirrs as Hux takes disinfectant and fresh gauze from its grasp. 

He glances down at Kylo for a moment. He looks so young, despite the singed and bloody wound gorily splitting one side of his face. His right eye is still swollen shut, blistered and burnt by the saber wound. His left is wide open and fearful, rimmed in pink from tears. ‘Keep quiet and still. This is going to be uncomfortable.’ He says as gently as he can.

Kylo only nods, grunting in pain through gritted teeth as the antiseptic-soaked gauze brushes the wound. His eyes are squeezed shut but watering, fresh tears slipping down his cheeks. Something close to pity stirred in Hux’s chest. 

However powerful he was, Kylo was like every other wounded cadet he’d come across in his career. Scared and suddenly so very young, brutally reminded of just how fragile they were. Hux’s brief few weeks of field medic training are still a little hazy, although he passed with merit. Keeping the patient calm and distracted seems to be important.

‘Your personnel file gives your age as twenty-nine.’ He remarks, glancing up at him over the top of his glasses. ‘Is that right?’ He moderates his tone so he doesn’t sound quite so angry. He may not have much left, his career and the project he’d dedicated a decade of his life to was blasted to stardust.

Kylo ignores the question. Tears are rolling down his cheeks in full flow now. They must really sting on that wound.  
Hux has never been this physically close to him. The sudden epiphany that he could not leave Kylo to die in the snow because he feels something for him is a comforting promise of a future whilst his world crumbles. Perhaps, for his service, Kylo has earned a kind word and a gentle hand.

Kylo gives a low moan of pain as Hux wipes the congealed blood from around the wound in his abdomen, revealing scorched, tender pink flesh. The rest of his torso is pale as an Arkanian winter, flecked with little ink-spot moles. But his belly is as vulnerable as Hux’s, if a little more muscular. Heaving and flinching with pain, the raw and tender flesh shuddering away from his hand.

‘I’m marked now.’ Kylo’s voice cracks on the last word, a badly hidden sob. ‘They’ll know i’ve failed. I’m broken now. Nobody comes away unscathed.’

Normally Hux would write him off as being melodramatic. But he pauses to think on it for a minute as he smooths a bacta patch over the wound, and turns his attention to the wounds on his neck and shoulders.

‘You’re right. This is war, and nobody does come away unscathed. Everything can and will be taken from you. The empire was the same.’ He muses, almost to himself as he gathers fresh gauze and antiseptic and tilts Ren’s chin away to begin to clean the wounds on his neck. 

He thinks Ren is ignoring him, and has already began to berate himself for his useless attempts at comfort when Ren’s cold fingers find his right hand which is braced against the thin mattress while he tends to Ren’s neck. He squeezes Hux’s fingers as though bidding him to go on.

 

‘Well, when I was very young, as far back as I can remember, I had a small stuffed bantha that my mother gave me. Eda.’ he explains quietly, dousing a fresh piece of gauze with antiseptic and continuing to clean the deeper, ragged parts of the wound on his cheek. It hasn’t been entirely cauterised by the blade, so it’s messy, layers of burned and raw and blistering skin.

Ren laughs softly, a low rumble through his sobbing. ‘I can’t imagine you ever cuddling anything.’

Hux sighs, focussing on the jagged edge just below his cheekbone. ‘I was two. Hence ‘Eda’. Easy to pronounce. She stayed with me. I lost most of my clothes, my possessions. My father was moved a lot, with his position and the fall of the empire he was required on many different ships. I couldn’t take much, but Eda stayed. Through boot camp, and my time in the field, and when I graduated from the Academy. Summers on various star destroyers and in hiding. My mother told me to throw her away because she reminded her of the big house and beautiful gardens we used to own. Eda lost an eye, lost a leg, in so many moves. But she’s been repaired, and I have her still. I couldn’t let her go because, as broken as she was, she was the only thing I had left. I can’t let you go, however broken, because you may well be the only thing I have left worth saving.’

Hux has already began to curse himself for that idiotic last line when Kylo’s fingers squeeze his gently again. 

‘Thank you, General.’

***

Kylo assumed for the last few weeks in med bay that Hux had only told him about Eda to keep him conscious. He’d always had Hux down as a good, and even fairly charming liar. Giving his supposed raggedy plaything a name was a clever touch. 

But when he arrives at Hux’s quarters to thank him, his eyes stray past Hux’s expectant face to his desk. A small and tatty handful of fur with one eye that he’s never noticed before, sitting on the base of his desk lamp.

Eda.


End file.
